40th birthday ideas: birthday cake, party, and more

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Read Part 1: 40th birthday planning ideas: theme, party favor, shopping list, and more

and then...

The cake that had every curious eye glued to it ... was a newspaper-style birthday cake, which was designed by yours truly.  That is right.  My concept and design.

newspaper style naughty birthday cake surprise

Planning the Birthday Cake
She had a newspaper-style cake in mind.  But after googling for some ideas, I did not like the scribbling done on most of the cakes to appear as text.  I wanted it to actually contain information that people would enjoy reading; not simply a bold heading and randomly scribbled lines.  I started to search and pay more attention to how newspapers looked like, what columns and sections they had.  Especially since this was an all adults party, and because it was his 40th birthday, it meant "naughty forty" was implied - so, she and I decided to add adult humor, sleaziness, but fun stuff on the naughty 40th birthday cake.

designing.  a rough idea.  the rough draft.

First I thought of naming the newspaper "Deccan Chronicle" since that is the leading English newspaper in the state in India that he is from.  Or may be something on the lines of The New York Times...may be The Birthday Times?  Or a Birthday Post like Bangkok Post?  Finally settled with The Birthday Chronicle.

Newspaper sections could have Poll Results, Hot News, Inside Story, Weather, Breaking News, Special, Exclusive Interview, In The News, Horoscope, Classifieds, Outlook, Entertainment, Perspective, Sports, Business, etc etc etc.  Which should I include, what should I write in them?  After hours of planning, days of drafting, and being an amateur at Photoshop, I was finally satisfied with the columns and design.  Calling up bakeries to see if THIS FILE can actually be printed on a CAKE was the next step.

SOS Bakeries!
I needed edible image printing on the birthday cake.  After several contacts and negotiations, we decided to place our order with Natalie Bakery in Plano, Texas.  And they did a brilliant job with the cake.  Since this tres leches cake with vanilla buttercream was a full sheet, size 18x24 inches, serving about 60-80 people, they could not print the entire file on one sheet.  They had to combine four A4 size edible image printed sheets on top of the cake.  I gave them only one final 18x24" jpeg file, and told them to "size it to fit your edible image printer, and please ensure that the image doesn't look too stretched out, condensed, or distorted because of resizing."  And they took care of the rest.  Because of the little excess space on sides of the cake, they even agreed to add the blue border, and a champagne bottle with lid open and champagne flowing out (though it looks like a basketball on top of a bottle).  I was disappointed to see the points where the sheets were combined was messed up a little, but ignored it because overall, I was quite happy with their work.

the birthday cake

The Party Begins...
Cake was keeping guests entertained at the party; each one was walking past to check it out, read, or click a picture.  They were also enjoying seeing the photos on the wall and the birthday boy was sharing stories behind some pictures.  The delicious Indo-Chinese food also kept the guests engrossed.  While the hosts of the party enjoyed spending quality time with their friends instead of organizing games or activities to keep the guests busy and entertained.  They did not have to drain their energy.

keeping guests busy at the birthday party

And good, because the energy had to be saved up for something better.  The dance floor was open, and DJ started playing louder, faster beats.  For almost two hours, everyone danced to their heart's content.  She and her friends made this surprise party for her husband's birthday a success.  With good food, good music, good company, some drinks and dance - any party is a super hit.  And so was this.

DJ, drinks, and dance - and a party idea can never go wrong!

Here's a slice of cake for you.  Tres Leches cake.  Mmmmmm......

a birthday quote

I hope the party planning post and this one gave you some good ideas to organize your own or a surprise party for someone.

Do you want this showstopper edible newspaper cake for your friend's or family member's birthday?  You can buy the basic Photoshop template from here: Birthday Theme Newspaper Style Edible Cake Topper and modify it as you wish!

Have you pulled off any birthday surprises for your husband?  Please share some ideas with me!  The last year I did a scavenger hunt for Alok's birthday, but now I need some great ideas for his upcoming birthday this year!
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